Dude, I respect your opinions, so what I'm about to say is nothing about you,
I'm apologizing now, because if what you say is correct, then this is going to offend you.
According to Marvel's wiki Thor's energy manipulation is equal of Surfer's. As for the specific task of bringing someone back to life I don't think he can do that without the Odinforce though, which if he had that would put him way above Surfer and is not really the point of the comparison.
Thor can also affect both time and space so when looking at some more mystical effects he has those too.
Thor's energy manipulation.....what does that mean? Sure he could summon powerful lightning bolts, because he's the god of Thunder. Is he now the god of the electromagnetic spectrum ? Good, because I have some complaints about wireless broadband in our country, maybe he can fix it.
(that Odinforce stuff is one-off isn't it ? Or is that all the time ? I know that sometimes when the story demands it Thor gets extra power from somewhere else, but my understanding is that stuff like that is very temporary, and very situation dependent )
In contrast, the Surfer has resurrected the nearly deceased, rearranged molecules, used his cosmic energy to make himself stronger/faster/tougher
and do lots of other cool stuff. Can Thor do all that too ?
Thor can affect time and space ? What does this mean ?
It sounds like he's really gone beyond the original idea of the character. I knew Thor could use Mjolnir to travel between dimensions, (like between Asgard and Earth), what do you mean he can affect time and space, because those aren't powers I traditionally don't associate with Thor.
So if you're telling me he can manipulate energy like the Surfer, and affect space and time, why don't they just make him telepathic as well, or allow him to pass through solid objects, and the ability to grow/shrink or turn invisible because clearly they forgot to throw in those super powers too ?
(Yes, I know that's big talk from someone who's favourite superhero has more superpowers than I can count - but in my defence at least his powers have been pretty much the same since 1970, except the Red/Blue Superman thing, and everyone, myself included agrees that that sucked !)
It's one thing to make a character powerful, or give him some new super-powers, (happens all the time) And Thor certainly should be among the most powerful of Marvel's cast, but it sounds he's moved a long way past the character concept I would associate with Thor.
Basically, a big strong tough guy, who looks like he came from the same gym as Schwarzenegger, and has a magic hammer that can fly and control the weather -oh yeah, and is modelled on a legendary demi-God. But your description sounds like they should change the name of the comic from Thor: god of thunder, to just God.
To my mind, to make a fight interesting, each combatant should always have a chance of winning (e.g. in My MOS Superman v TDW Thor thread, I've said, many times, in the right circumstances Thor could win, it's more likely Supes would win, but not for a second do I think Thor doesn't have a chance).
Here, it sounds like the Surfer doesn't have a prayer against Thor. I could be misreading the way you've described him, but if Thor is really that powerful, maybe it should be Thor v Galactus instead, as the Surfer doesn't seem up to it.
They mainly have fought in space and environment unlike Earth. Surfer has never been able to win.
Thor also don't actually need an atmosphere to create his weather effects. In the recent God-Butcher arc he (it's even his young self, before he's deemed worthy) summons a rain of fire on a moon where there's no water. He's done similar things before as well.
Again.....kind of goes beyond the concept of the character. I apologize for this, because it will no doubt offend....but that's just stupid, there's no atmosphere on the moon, so he's actually creating an atmosphere to create weather ? (Yes, Superman does impossible things every issue, but for some reason, weather effects without an atmosphere seems extra dumb, just IMO).
Yes, the power levels definitely change a lot from writer to writer. Even in comics that are going on simultaneously. Thor didn't come off very strong in the Avengers Assemble first arc, being knocked out in one blow a couple of times, while in Thor: God of Thunder he's very powerful and actually absorbed energy meant to kill every god in every point in time.
Here we agree, that writers each put their own spin on the character, and don't always get it right. That stuff happens to Superman all the time, one day he's getting clobbered by Lobo, and a couple of months later punches Lobo into orbit, and laughs off his toughest shots, the next week, boy wonder takes him out.
This is no reflection on your personal taste, you like what you like, but you've just reminded me why I stopped reading Marvel a long time ago, and have never had much time for Thor.
However, I did read a few "Ultimates" when they first came out, and I really liked the Ultimate Thor, particularly that while powerful enough to take on all the other Avengers at once, plus a bunch of other guys, he was still beatable (and got beat !). He had quite an array of powers (including dimensional teleportation, weather control, flight, super strength, invulnerability-sort-of, lightning generation, but nothing that we wouldn't expect, or didn't over-extend the character concept.
Also, the character was well written, which helped.
But that version, and the Walt Simonson Thor of the 80's, was my favourite Thor.
Anyway, don't take it personally. I still really enjoyed TDW, and your thread is a good one.